Just Listen
by ThatDreamerWriter
Summary: Four months after Callie gets emancipated and almost 2 years since last seeing the Fosters, she finally comes face to face with them. After so much effort put into trying to distance herself, will she finally be able to understand their reasoning for leaving her behind and just listen? (Extension of "Words Left Unspoken" or can be read as a completely separate story)
1. Chapter 1

_Four months later…_

 **Chapter 1**

* * *

Stef and Mike stood silently outside of room 217 at the Super 8 Motel. It was one of those routine domestic disturbance calls in one of the worst parts of town. The two of them were the closest patrol to the scene, so they had no choice but to respond to it. Stef hated these most of all. It always felt like a huge waste of time and energy being spent, but yet here she was.

And it was always the same thing. The woman would either deny any type of abuse; and for hours, Stef would try to convince her it was okay to talk to them but she wouldn't budge... Or she would actually file a report that night, only for them to be called on another domestic disturbance case and find the same victim all over again with the exact person who attacked her the first time.

Stef nodded at Mike, giving him the cue, and he banged loudly on the door. "OPEN UP! SAN DIEGO POLICE!" he yelled as he kept his other hand on his side, in complete reach of his weapon. If drugs were involved, which was sometimes the case in that area, they needed to be prepared. All the man at the front desk told them that there was a girl living there for a few months and he hadn't heard of any noise complaints until they showed up. They had received the call from one of the other tenants.

He knocked again, hard this time, when he didn't get direct answer. "IF YOU DON'T OPEN UP, I'M KICKING THE DOOR DOWN, IN ONE! ...TWO!"

He didn't have the chance to reach three. He immediately closed his mouth at the sound of the latch on the other side of the door being removed.

"Wait," a woman's voice shouted as she tried to get all of the locks off as quickly as she could. It took longer than either cop preferred but they felt mutual sense of relief at the sound of the door creaking open slightly.

Stef and Mike's eyes remained focused on the small space of the door that was open until they got a glimpse of a small portion of the girl's face.

Callie's eyes immediately widened at the sight of Stef, and she instantly tried to shut the door on them, with the hopes that the woman wouldn't have recognized her by the little she saw. But that hope quickly diminished when the blonde's hand instantaneously forced the wooden door back open and pushed it toward Callie.

The teen backed away rapidly but kept her eyes focused on the ground and the woman's feet, from fear of having to look her in the eye again. She took slow and shallow breaths and regretted open the door before even considering who it might've been.

"Callie," Stef almost whispered while her eyes concentrated on the image of the girl in front of her. Her mouth remained slightly open for awhile as she tried to assess that she had finally come face to face all this time with someone, whom she had once considered her daughter. The blonde studied practically every inch of her from her wrinkled and torn t-shirt, to the mis-matched socks on her feet, and even to the reddish mark on the side of her face by her jaw.

It was obvious to the woman that the bruise was fresh, and just seeing the teen like that filled her with the pressing feeling of fury. But she knew better than to act on it.

And although Mike too seemed surprised by unexpectedly seeing Callie, he didn't need that much time to recover. _Whoever did this to Callie was most likely hiding out further inside of the motel room_ , he rationalized before stepping in and quickly drawing his gun from his belt.

Stef couldn't even blink away. It wasn't until she felt Mike's body walk passed her that she finally snapped out of it and followed him in, also drawing her weapon from it's holster and bringing it up to the air.

Callie remained almost frozen in place. Her immediate thought was to run, but this was _her_ home. She wouldn't run from it. She wouldn't leave it. After she got evicted from the apartment the judge and his wife helped her get, there weren't too many other places that would rent to her at a price she could afford. She was lucky to get this small room in the cheapest motel in San Diego. It wouldn't be easy to find another.

 _Plus, t_ _his was her place_.

 _Stef had no right to be there._

The teen just stared out the doorway at absolutely nothing for a while, trying to assess how this was actually happening. She wanted to tell them to leave more than anything, but her she couldn't open her mouth to say a word. It was as if she was paralyzed from head to toe.

"Clear," Mike said after he pulled back the shower curtain and saw no one. Stef let out a breath and she couldn't yet decide if she was angry or grateful that there wasn't anyone else in the room. She walked back over to Callie and stood in front of her, before trying to reach for her face to examine the bruise on it. Callie instantly pulled away and moved farther back, fully glaring at the woman now, suddenly deciding that she didn't have to be afraid to look Stef in the eye anymore.

Stef took in a deep breath and let it out, completely expecting this kind of reaction. She wasn't surprised in the slightest. She knew that if she ever saw the girl again, things wouldn't be the same but that didn't stop her from caring all this time.

"Who did this to you?" the blonde still asked her. It didn't matter as much right now that Callie still hated her, in Stef's eyes. What mattered was who physically hurt her and where he was…

Callie shook her head and pursed her lips. "I didn't call the police," she said matter-of-factly.

Mike chose to intervene, "Someone else did for you. They heard yelling and heard someone being slammed around in this room."

"They heard wrong. Or it was a different room," the teen answered as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Everything's fine. You need to leave," she finished in a completely detached demeanor despite the tears wanting so badly to form in her eyes.

She fought them back though.

 _You haven't cried in over two years,_ she reminded herself.

 _Why are you fighting the immediate need to cry at the sight of the woman and her presence?_

 _It's been two years!_

Still, it was as if all of the memories were flowing back toward her at this exact moment and she couldn't contain them anymore. It was as if she was a child again.

She wasn't.

Despite her feelings, she kept her posture stiff and her face expressionless.

 _They didn't need to be here._

"We can't do that," Stef answered persistently as she eyed Callie's bruise and wondered if there were anymore of them that weren't visible to her eyes. The person who called them obviously thought that the fight was serious enough to call the police for help. She wouldn't just leave her there without more information.

Callie shook her head, "I'm not complaining about anything and there's no one else in the room with me, so there's no reason to be here right now. There isn't a victim in this room... I'm asking you both to leave."

Stef remained still, in front of Callie as if nothing the girl had just said to get them to go away held any weight to her. Stef felt that Callie was still her daughter even though no one else, including Lena, felt the same. The cop couldn't leave her underage daughter in a motel room where she had obviously just been attacked by God knows who.

"Callie," Stef said.

"I said GET OUT!" the girl yelled in response. "LEAVE! BEFORE I CALL THE REAL POLICE!" she threatened.

The blonde closed her mouth and pressed her lips together, but her eyes maintained their focus on Callie, and her body remained still.

Mike watched as Callie began walking over toward the phone on the nightstand and grabbed his partner's arm. "Stef…"

Stef didn't budge.

Mike pulled her back slightly. "Stef, we need to go," he voiced desperately. The last thing he wanted was for both of them to lose their jobs over breaking an entering and refusing to leave. "Stef, not now, okay?"

Stef finally turned to face him and he could see the resistance in her eyes.

"I know," he told her. "But we need to go," he voiced more sternly.

Stef placed her gaze back on Callie, who already had the phone held up to her ear. Mike nudged her arm again at another attempt to get his partner to leave with him before this got really bad. Stef forced herself to leave from Callie's room that night, giving both of them what they wanted, despite the fact that it took all she had to do so…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

As soon as Mike closed the door to the motel room, Stef's body remained still right behind it. Mike let out a sigh and looked up at his partner. "Stef, we need to go."

"I'm not leaving, Mike," she answered simply.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing from his partner. How could Stef really be so bent over caring for someone, who obviously thought nothing of her now? It had been years and Callie had only stayed with Stef and Lena for a few months. Why the hell was his ex-wife still so adamant to be a part of this girl's life again? he couldn't help but wonder.

"Stef, you heard her. The last thing we need is to lose both of our jobs because of this. She's probably still on the phone with them as we speak. Captain Roberts-"

"You can leave, Mike," she quickly interrupted him. "I'm not asking you to stay," she felt the need to point out. "But I can't just leave her there, wh-when the… _guy_ who just did that to her could come back at any second."

It wasn't Stef's issue to deal with, Mike kept thinking to himself. "She's an adult, Stef. Remember? She's mature enough to make her own decisions."

Stef furrowed her eyebrows at him, "A piece of paper doesn't make her an adult," she spat and spoke in reference to the fact that Callie had gotten emancipated. That part, she knew by now. It was a matter of Callie staying long enough in one place that kept Stef from ever getting a physical address to go and see her.

Mike pulled her further to the side of the building, "She's not your daughter anymore. I'm sorry, Stef, but you're completely off base here. Think about what you're doing to yourself… and to Callie…"

"What am I doing?" she challenged. "I'm trying to bring my family back together," she chose to answer her own question, instead of having to listen to Mike put his foot even farther down his throat.

"Callie hasn't been part of your family is almost two years!" he yelled, causing for the blonde to glare at him with piercing eyes. He could tell that she wanted to hurt him for saying that but he needed to make her see that this wasn't her issue anymore. She should've moved passed this by now. "Look," he tried to voice in a calmer tone, in order to relax the both of them, "…You of all people know that you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. And from what I can see… Callie doesn't want to be saved. Least of all, by you right now. You keep holding onto this false hope that you can just get her back and it'll be so simple."

"No, I know it's not going to be simple," she retorted. "Nothing ever is with her," the blonde admitted. "But that doesn't mean I'm just going to give up."

"It's not giving up," Mike attempted to make clear. "It's accepting reality. You've been searching for Callie all this time and she doesn't even care. Stop putting so much effort into a relationship that's never going to be the same."

Stef shook her head and tried to draw out everything Mike was saying. Despite the truth some of his words held, none of it mattered to her at this moment. And it wasn't fair for him to tell her how to feel about all of it. "Mike, I know you don't understand and I'm not asking you to… But what I need you to realize is that I won't let someone else make this decision for me again. I've left her once because _someone_ told me that I was doing the right thing… then...But I won't make that same mistake twice," she voiced sternly before she stood up straighter and stiffened up her belt. "…Now, you can take the car and leave but don't question me about how to feel about my own daughter," she voiced in a tone that left no room for argument. "Here," she said as she pulled out the car keys from her pocket and tried to hand them over to him.

Her partner looked at them for a few seconds as he thought about what she had suggested before looking back up at her. He grabbed them, causing for Stef to look away. He wanted so badly to walk away from this. He knew it would only get uglier if he stayed, but the last thing he was going to do was sit back and let the mother of his son get arrested.

Mike sighed. "I'll move the car somewhere she can't see it," he mumbled in defeat. "Just stay out here and keep an eye out."

"Mike, I mean it. You don't have to stay," Stef reminded him. The last thing she wanted was to feel guilty over Mike getting in trouble for standing beside her tonight.

"Yes, I do," he offered a short fake-laugh before beginning to walk away. He didn't have an option in his mind.

Stef swallowed hard as she watched Mike leave and turned to face the direction of Callie's room again. At the sight of it, she was forced to remember the look on her daughter's face. It was cold and distant. The expression on the girl's face was now glued into the woman's mind and couldn't be removed. The hate she felt radiating off of Callie's eyes onto her own pained her even more than she had ever imagined. There was more hate there than the cop had ever considered there would be.

And it was that hate which kept her from knocking on the door once more.

* * *

Callie hadn't wanted to even look out the door after they had left.

 _Would they still be standing there?_

 _Should she have really called the police on them?_

She only told them that she had just to get them to leave, but she hadn't actually figured that it would work.

 _Why would she really call them?_

 _It's not like they ever took her side on anything before…_

She shook her head and took a deep breath before walking over toward the edge of her window and pulling the corner of the curtain aside. _The squad car was driving away,_ she realized. With that, she let out a deep breath and placed the phone back on the hook in order to stop the incessant buzzing from having the phone off the receiver for so long.

 _Stef knew where she lived now… Now, what was she supposed to do? What if she came back?_

 _Callie needed to find another place._

 _She needed to find something now._

But she was too angry about that to think about how incredibly stupid her next move was. She pulled out her cellphone and pulled up the text message screen.

 **Deal's off** she typed before pressing send.

 **To be continued…**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Stef twisted the doorknob along with the key as she opened the motel room door. Her and Mike were able to rent the room directly across from Callie's after a long disagreement with the man running the front desk at the motel.

"We're bad for business," Stef repeated sarcastically so that Mike would hear once she got the door open. "What a joke," she smiled as she shook her head. "You'd think the guy would thank us for wanting to camp out here. I mean, this is a crappy neighborhood as it is. How are having 2 cops around bad for business?"

"Eh, he's an idiot. What are you going to do?" Mike said casually as he shrugged his shoulders and walked farther in while Stef closed the door behind them. "I'm gonna go use the bathroom."

Stef nodded and walked over toward the window, beginning to open up the blinds so that she could get a better view.

Nothing, she realized which caused her to sigh out of impatience. Waiting was definitely not her strong suit.

Lena, she remembered suddenly. The blonde grabbed her cellphone from her pocket and clicked on her wife's name, bringing the device up close to her ear as she stared out the window again.

She listened to it ring once before she heard an answer.

"Hey, where are you?" Lena asked first. Stef was only a few minutes later than usual but this most often meant that she had to work later.

"Hey, Love. I'm sorry I didn't call before. I got distracted. You're never going to guess who I ran into," Stef answered as she placed her head on her forehead.

"Who?"

The cop wasn't entirely sure how Lena would react to the news, but she knew that it was important to at least tell her. "Uh..." Stef paused, "Callie."

Lena furrowed her eyebrows, silently wondering if she had misheard her wife for a split second. This was the last thing she was expecting today. They had barely spoken the name in their house since she left so the sudden sound of it coming from Stef's mouth caught her by surprise. "Um...Where?" The brunette wasn't sure how to even begin.

"You know, that's actually another thing I wanted to talk to you about and the reason why I'm going to be a little late tonight. Mike and I got a disturbance call from the Super 8 motel. When we knocked on the door, Callie was the one who opened it."

"A disturbance call? What kind of disturbance call?" Lena interrupted.

"Well, uh..." The blonde wasn't sure how to answer her wife's question exactly. She hadn't wanted to spring any of that on her right now, but she didn't really have much of a choice. "The people next door to her room reported shouting and things being slammed between Callie and a guy. She didn't want to uh... Speak to either of us so Mike and I are waiting here, hoping that the little prick shows up. They usually do."

Lena breathed in heavily, not wanting to go through this over again. It was hard enough for her when Callie refused to speak to them for months after she ran away, but now her wife wanted to invite all of that back into their lives?

"Oh..." Lena said simply as she held back what she really wanted to say. She hated how negative she was feeling but she couldn't do anything about that. It was how she really felt.

"What's wrong?" Stef gave in, in a defeated tone. The truth was she knew Lena hadn't exactly dealt with her feelings all that well after everything that had happened. But she honesty figured that after hearing that they found Callie, those feelings would dissipate and she'd come to her senses.

Lena thought carefully about what to say next. She hadn't wanted her wife to tell her that she was being ridiculous but she couldn't keep quiet and do this again. "...Stef, it's–" she paused and took in a deep breath before letting it out. "I don't want to go through this with Callie. Not again. Not now." The silence coming from on the other line, worried the brunette.

And Stef wanted to take in her wife's words with complete understanding but this wasn't the time. "You can't really be serious?" She finally asked. "Wha–"

"I am," Lena was quick to interrupt this time. "She left us, remember? After we took her in, after I brought her home, Callie left us–"

"Because she thought we had abandoned her," the cop defended.

"And she never gave us a chance to explain... She never gave us the benefit of the doubt, like we had done for her so many times, Stef." Lena shook her head as she spoke. "I brought her home, you let her stay after finding out she was in juvie, she called us that horrible word and we got passed all of that. We even told her we wanted to adopt her after everything and still... She left."

"I know that, Lena."

"But she didn't do the same," Lena told her. "After all we did for her, she couldn't even let us explain before she shut us out."

"Honey," Stef stopped her.

"No," Lena answered. "I lost Callie, then I lost Frankie... How can you even consider making me go through this again?" The woman asked in disbelief. She just hoped that the subject would never come up and now this happened out of nowhere. It was far from fair.

"I lost them too," Stef felt the need to remind her. "Do you think you went through all of that alone, Lena?"

"No, Stef. That's not what I'm saying. I just think I'm the only one who remembers everything... Everything you and I went through, Jude, Mariana, Jesus, and Brandon. Stef..." Lena sighed before continuing, "Please don't do this to yourself anymore. Don't do this to our family. Don't invite anymore hurt into all of our lives..."

Stef stood there stunned at her wife's choice of words and complete reaction. How had something Stef had wanted so badly been the same thing Lena was silently fearing? The realization confused her more and more as the seconds went passed.

"Just... Just come home," Lena finished...

To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4

chapter 4

* * *

Mike had stayed with Stef throughout most of the night and left at around 3am to get some sleep before heading to work in the morning. They knew that their captain would find it suspicious if both of them called out of work the next morning, and the last thing either of the two wanted was to call for unwanted attention in the midst of all of this.

So when Stef accidentally fell asleep at roughly 9am at the windowsill, her eyes fluttered open and she was left staring at the motel room again.

Callie! She thought to herself. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! She continued as she grabbed her cellphone from her pocket to look at the time.

10.30.

She had slept for over an hour. "Shit!" She mumbled as she got up from the sofa chair and ran to open her motel room door. How stupid could I be? She blamed herself as she power-walked as fast as she could across the street. Immediately, she began to think the worst. The guy who abused Callie probably came back during the little bit of time in which she had been sleeping.

And even if he hadn't, Stef had had enough with the waiting. Her body literally couldn't take it anymore. As soon as she got to the door, she leaned her head against it, in an attempt to hear any sound of movement. But instead, she heard nothing which made her incredibly impatient. The cop knocked loudly on the wood three times and awaited as calmly as the situation would allow. However, that was only about 8 seconds before she knocked again, this time unafraid to open her mouth. "Callie, please open the door," she said in a more than just audible tone. Her eyes widened as she again heard no sound of movement, causing for her to bang harder on the door. "Callie, please. I know you're upset with me right now, but I need you to open the door for me."

Complete silence.

Stef breathed in deeply from her nose before backing away slowly from the door and making her way over toward the front office in a quick pace. What if Callie was lying unconscious on the other side or what if someone else was in there with her threatening her to keep her mouth shut. Both scenarios were running through her mind at that moment, along with over twenty more possibilities.

"I need the key to room 217," she ordered the man at the front desk as soon as he was made visible.

"Ma'am, I can't just give you the key to a tenant's room. I'm sorry, but you're going to need a warrant for that," the scruffy looking guy informed her.

Stef was really getting annoyed with the fact that someone or something always came in between her and Callie every time it was urgent. The parole officer, the correction officers at juvie, this guy, and the law. She was beginning to become infuriated and her nerves didn't help ease the situation either.

"The tenant is my daughter and she could be in danger right now! SO GIVE ME THE DAMN KEY!" she yelled even louder before holding her hand out as she waited.

The guy just looked at her with an awed expression on his face, as if he had just been slapped by a stranger and was too stunned to do anything about it. He glanced down at her hand and decided he should be smart about this, before reaching under his desk and pulling the key with the number 217 off of the hook. The man slowly placed it on top of her palm. "If anyone asks, you didn't get this from me."

"Thhankk yyou," Stef voiced angrily before whipping her body around, now rushing toward Callie's room again. As soon as she got in front of it, she placed the key in the doorknob and immediately twisted it, pushing it right open. For a moment there, she fumbled a bit as she remembered to remove her pistol from it's holster. She kept the gun pointed downward in her hands, from the thought of scaring Callie by actually pointing it at her. Her vision was suddenly filled with an empty room; and to her dismay, all of the lights were off.

No, she thought to herself as she reached to the right of the entrance for the light switch and moved it upward.

She remained quiet as she walked further inside, in order to get a better look. The room was so small so she reached the empty bathroom fairly quickly. "Damn it," she murmured as she glanced around the room one more time.

A comb, deodorant, shoes, and more clothes were all visible.

She is definitely coming back, the blonde forced herself to think. She had to...

* * *

2 Hours Later

Callie stared at the older couple, who walked into the diner she had been working at for only a little while. She tried to smile even though her mood was less than cheerful. "Hi, how many? Just 2?"

The older gentleman smiled back at her. "Yes," he answered as he held onto his wife's walker and the woman stared back at him.

"Right this way," Callie said as she grabbed two menus from the stand and took a few steps toward the closest empty booth she could find.

After a little time, she was finally able to place their menus in front of them. "Can I start you off with something to drink or do you need more time?" Her eyes darted toward the shadowy figure standing off to the right toward the front door, and she was forced to meet his gaze.

What was he doing here? Callie thought to herself before turning her attention back toward the elderly man. "Water for me and some lemonade for her. Thank you."

Callie smiled. "Okay, I'll be right back," she said before walking toward him with an obviously upset expression on her face.

"Tommy, what are you doing here? I'm working. I don't have time for this."

He squinted her eyes at her. "What? Now you don't have time for me?"

"I told you that the deal's off. I'm moving so you don't get to do this anymore," she said as she placed her hand on the bruise on her jaw, silently wondering if the bruise was actually showing through her makeup by now. It barely covered it up but the last thing she wanted was for Tommy to still see her as the vulnerable one. She moved her hand away.

"You're moving?" He chuckled. "Where are you going to go? Who else is going to rent to you?" He asked out of curiosity and Callie could tell that he didn't exactly believe her.

"I've already got a place," she lied. "I'm moving out tomorrow," she continued, and a feeling of regret suddenly overwhelmed her. "I'll give you the rest of what I owe you then."

He shook his head and smiled. "And you think getting rid of me is going to be that easy? Huh? Is that what you think? That you can just switch motels and that will change everything?"

The expression on Callie's face was definitely one of confusion. "That's all you have over me. That you own that stupid motel, so yeah."

"And what about this job?" He asked her. "How did you think you got it? On your own? Jerry would have never hired you if it weren't for me."

"I know," Callie replied. "And thank you for that," she said honestly. "But I'm done with this, Tommy. I can't do this anymore."

He stared at her with a look of disbelief. "...Let me ask you something... How do you think he'd take it if I told him the cleaning lady found a crack-pipe in your room?"

Callie's posture straightened.

"Huh? You think he'd still keep your around and wait for you to steal all his money?" Tommy continued.

"That's a lie," Callie raised her tone and followed it with a death glare.

"You think that matters?" Tommy asked her sarcastically. "All I have to do is say one word about you and you're back to living on the streets, where I found you. Is that what you really want?"

Callie breathed in heavily through her nose as she tried to find the right words to respond.

But she knew there weren't any.

"That's what I thought," he smiled again. "Look, The next time you feel like trying something like this again, do yourself a favor and think," he stopped to place his finger directly on her forehead and Callie instantly backed away. "Think," he repeated, "...before you act… And remember exactly why you have everything that you have. It's because of me. I gave you all of that."

The brunette swallowed hard and bit back all of the things she wanted to say, because he was right...

She was stuck there...


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 _All I have to do is say one word... One word about you..._

 _And your back to living on the streets... Where I found you._

Tommy's words echoed in Callie's mind throughout her entire walk back towards the motel as she tried to contemplate what she should do in her current situation.

 _Stay and continue to be Tommy's personal punching bag every time she couldn't pay him on time?_

 _Or... Leave with nothing going for her and nowhere to stay?_

Her options were always less than ideal and never actually felt like she had much of a choice in the first place, but here she was weighing the benefits of each.

If she left, she wouldn't have to deal with Tommy anymore. She wouldn't owe him money. She wouldn't feel as if she was working hard all day just to hand practically her entire check to some asshole who clearly took advantage of the fact that she was alone. If she left, she'd be free. Free of Tommy and free of Stef ever coming back and trying to visit her for whatever stupid reason she had.

Free? Would that really mean anything if she was back at square one? With no roof over her head and no job? Sure, she might be able to find another job, but how long would that take? Where would she stay until then? If it wasn't for Tommy, it'd be some other asshole claiming to want to help her get on her feet... until she finally is, and then hold it against her like they all had.

 _Like the Judge had..._

Callie took in a deep breath and realized her decision when she saw the broken down sign of the Super 8 Motel clear in her vision.

 _She came back._

 _What else would that mean?_

I can do this, she whispered to herself as she put her key inside of the doorknob when she reached the door.

 _He doesn't hurt me all of the time_ , she continued to rationalize.

 _Only when I don't have all of his money... Maybe I just need to find another job_ , she thought to herself. _That should solve it, right?_

Within seconds, she got the door open all of the way and placed her bag on her bed, closing the door and locking it behind her. She sat down beside the bag and removed the cash from the front zipper, beginning to count the tip money she had received today.

 _Twenty-nine dollars._

She let out a deep breath and scratched her head, remembering that she wouldn't get paid for another week.

She was a hundred and twenty-one dollars short. If she got $29 for every day for the next four days, she would _still_ be short the next time Tommy came to see her.

 _Shit_ , she thought to herself as she tried to come up with another plan to make more money. She tossed the cash back onto the bed and leaned back against it out of exhaustion, closing her eyes and attempting to forget about this whole mess she was in.

"Callie," Stef finally blurted out softly, even though she honestly didn't expect a calm tone from the girl in return.

The teens eyes widened instantly, causing her body to lift up in a sitting position to face the blonde, who she had first thought to have been imagining. Instantly, she fumbled with her words out of pure confusion and unawareness. "Wh-H- WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Her eyes remained stiff and she tried to stand up and away from the bed as fast as she could. But to her dismay, it took longer than she would have liked since Stef was able to make her way over toward the right side of it, where she was.

She didn't want to alarm Callie but it was obviously too late for that. Instead, she put her arms in front of her body and attempted to calm the girl. "Look, honey. Please... just-"

"GET OUT!" The teen ordered the woman, as she herself tried to step towards the door in an attempt to flee. If Stef was going to refuse to leave, then at least Callie would have the option to do so.

Stef stepped into action and brought herself over toward the front of the entrance faster than the seventeen-year old could blink. The woman was clearly blocking Callie's path and pressing her back towards the wood now.

"Callie, I can't leave," she shook her head and kept her eyes focused on Callie's. "I won't keep making the same mistake with you, even if that's what you think you want."

"Then, let me go!" Callie demanded while she tried to reach for the doorknob underneath Stef's arm, but she wasn't able to pull the door open with Stef's weight being used to keep the entrance shut.

"No," Stef responded coldly this time. "Not until you listen to what I have to say."

"You broke into my room! There's no way in hell this is legal!" Callie yelled angrily, in an attempt to remind Stef that she was breaking the law at this point, but the blonde honestly could care less. Getting in trouble with her boss, or even possibly getting fired because of this was the least of her worries, even if her daughter didn't understand it.

"It's the only way I can speak to you and you know it," the cop told her in a steady and stern voice. "Just relax, Callie, please," the woman begged.

Callie shook her head when she realized Stef wasn't going to move. "You can't do this," the teen reiterated as she walked over toward the phone on the nightstand and lifted the receiver up to her ear. The teen couldn't hear a single sound from the phone as she tried to dial the police, which just made her even more agitated, causing her hand to reach around it until she realized the cord had been removed.

Stef let out a breath this time, fully expecting the girl to lose it completely but still attempting to keep her calm. "I'm sorry, sweets. I had to unhook the phone. Can you please–"

"You're insane," Callie retorted and she couldn't help but completely believe it at this point. _What kind of woman would break an entering and keep her hostage, unplugging her only way out?_

Stef nodded. "Fine, you can believe that if you want bu–"

"I do," Callie was quick to interrupt her, not caring about anything else now.

Stef sighed again deeply, as she tried to consider how she would make things right again.

 _What could she possibly say to fix this?_

This time, she was stumped.

Her mind, a blank, and she could almost feel her only opportunity floating away right in front of her.

"Why are you doing this?" Callie began, breaking the long silence between them. "What do you want from me?" she asked.

Stef tried to focus. "I just want to talk, Callie."

"Why?" Callie continued. "Why now? Why do you want to act like you suddenly care, _now_? What changed, huh?"

"Nothing–"

 _"_ What? _Now_ , you have time for me?" Callie interrupted again. In her mind, there was nothing Stef could say that could make things right again. The cop was just wasting both of their time. " _Now_ , that it's convenient for you... now, you want to try to makes things better?"

"No, Callie. That's not it."

"What is it that you need to hear from me, for you to leave? That I forgive you?" the teen finally came to the realization. "You have a guilty conscience and need to hear it in order to go away? Fine! I forgive you. Now, please leave," the teen finished harshly.

Stef eyed Callie carefully.

She knew that deep down, Callie was never going to let her explain. She was never going to sit down and just listen to what she and Lena had to say, not willingly. That was why Stef had decided to spend the night there, just to make sure that the girl would be safe instead of forcing her to come home with her and making matters worse. At this point, she couldn't force her daughter to do anything, but Callie couldn't force the woman to stop either.

She couldn't stop Stef from finally being able to tell their side of the story...


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 _It's now or never_ , the cop thought to herself just prior to opening her mouth and going off her instincts rather than her fear. "You never let us explain," Stef began when she realized that her best bet would be to jump right into it, instead of waiting for Callie to listen all on her own. Stef had to take the lead here and start making the decisions. The teen had been making the wrong ones for far too long. Everything around them just proved it.

"There was nothing to explain," Callie protested, wanting nothing more than to come to an end to this very late conversation. "You made a decision and I dealt with it. End of discussion," the girl said in a tone that almost left no room for argument.

"No," Stef said as she shook her head and Callie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Love," the blonde continued softly. "Mama and I didn't abandon you. I know that's what you think."

Callie huffed as if everything the woman in front of her was saying was a complete joke. _Stef was a complete joke_. "It doesn't matter now. None of this matters anymore." It amazed the teen that Stef was still so relentless about the whole situation after all of this time. What exactly did she think that explaining a decision from two years ago was going to solve now? Did she think they could just talk and everything would be better? That she could just forgive them?

"It matters to me!" Stef said sternly and wished that Callie would just accept her wanting to be there, rather than continue to fight her off with every point she tried to make. She took in a deep breath and noticed the confused look on Callie's face. "Look... I know that we screwed up big time that day in the courtroom. This _we all know._ But we weren't giving up on you, Callie. We just wanted... We wanted to get you to understand. You needed to learn that the decisions you were making weren't oaky..."

Callie furrowed her eyebrows and made a disgusted facial expression as if that were the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

"Your parole officer," Stef continued, "He suggested the girls' home, Callie."

The teen remained stiff as the woman spoke, not wanting to believe any word that was coming out of her mouth, but willing to listen if that was the only way to make Stef go away.

But as long as Callie was listening and not fighting, this was good news to the cop.

"He suggested that you needed to learn how to better control yourself and he said you'd get the coping skills you needed from Girls United. Lena and I didn't know what to do," she admitted honestly, knowing that it would be best to tell Callie the truth. "All we knew was that we wanted to help you–"

Callie glanced down at her feet and pursed her lips as she wondered just how long Stef's monologue would take.

"Yes, I told the judge that we couldn't take you home that day... because I was _afraid_. I was afraid of what would happen if I did," Stef paused to study her daughter's stance. She silently wondered if Callie was in fact, blocking out every word that she was saying. "I was afraid you'd run again. I was afraid we couldn't help you on our own. That's why we decided to go along with the idea because... we thought it was the only option we had to get you to come _home_ ," Stef finished with a cracked-voice, that she was beginning to regret showing.

Callie's gaze moved back up to the blonde's and she hated making anyone feel like that. In her mind, _they were wrong and she was right._ They didn't deserve to make her feel guilty for hearing them cry. She had done enough of that over the years and she couldn't just let all of that anger go no matter what. She knew that she was being more stubborn than she should be. But Callie needed to hold onto the rage that she felt whenever she thought about the Fosters; despite the fact that she suddenly found herself wanting to give in and believe the woman.

Stef took in a few deep breaths just so that she could gather her thoughts and try to keep her emotions in check. "We wanted to explain all of this that very same day after the hearing, but you refused to see us. And all the times we tried to visit you in juvie, you just avoided us."

The teen remained silent from the confusion that she was dealing with in her own mind, as she wondered just how she should react _or even how she should feel_. She couldn't help still feeling distant and angry. "No," she shook her head, "You left me there because you didn't want me around your son anymore," she retorted with hostility, more to convince herself than to convince Stef. "You knew I was nothing but trash so you tried to keep me away–"

"No," Stef was quick to interrupt. "We didn't abandon you, Callie. After everything that we've been through, you can't really believe that we'd think that about you... that we'd just cut off all ties because of a... a silly mistake that you and Brandon _both_ made."

Callie's eyes fluttered back and forth as she stared back down at the ground. Her head was shaking back and forth, but with very little movement being made.

The blonde swallowed before continuing, "C-Callie, I'm so sorry that you thought that," Stef paused again as she instinctively brought her hand closer to her daughter's chin to move it upward, so that they would at least be making eye contact. She felt a sense of relief when the girl didn't retract in response to her touch, but it was obvious that her body was still tense. "We still love you."

Unwillingly, Callie's eyes filled with tears despite her desperate need to fight them back. _How could she feel like falling apart at Stef's words when she wasn't supposed to care about any of them anymore?_

Stef could sense Callie's struggle to not want to believe her.

"It's too late.." Callie mumbled as her last and final attempt at an excuse. She wasn't sure what else she could say anymore to get Stef to change her mind.

"Too late for what?" Stef asked with hopes that her daughter would realize that what she was saying didn't hold any ground anymore.

"Mn," Callie made a noise as she tried to search her thoughts for the right response. Her mouth opened to say something else but nothing came out.

"Please, Callie," Stef continued as she stepped even closer toward the girl. She needed her to realize that she wasn't going anywhere this time. "I'm not giving up on you. okay?" the blonde told her before tilting her head to the side and waiting for her daughter to nod or say something in agreement.

Callie breathed in deeply but still couldn't say a word. It was clear that the teen was stunned into utter silence.

Stef wanted to take this as a good sign even though she was exactly sure that it was.

It wasn't until the woman grabbed hold of Callie's body and pulled it close against her own that she could feel the resistance completely diminish. With that knowledge, she wrapped her arms around the brunette a little tighter. And within just a few seconds, she could feel her daughter's arms softly embracing her softly in return.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Stef opened the front door, carrying one of Callie's duffel bags in her hand while the teen carried the other. Despite everything, Callie still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about all of this. Even after Stef assured her that everything would be okay, she knew better than to just believe it... Nothing was ever okay for her. And as she stepped inside behind Stef, only a hundred questions clouded her mind.

How would everyone react to her being here?

Would her brother still hate her for leaving him?

Would Mariana still think of her as her sister?

Would Brandon think the kiss was just a stupid mistake, like Stef had insinuated?

Would Lena be dissappointed that she ran again

Would her being there just make things awkward for everyone?

If it did, she surely wouldn't stay... That she knew for sure. The last thing she wanted was to feel like a burden to everyone when the only reason she chose to leave her place was because Stef packed all of her stuff herself and practically pulled her over toward the car. Still, she went willingly when she thought about the mess she was in with Tommy. She needed a way out at this point and deep down, she couldn't help but feel as if she was using them to escape by going back.

"Home sweet home," Stef said softly as she put Callie's bag down on the sofa in the living room and the brunette followed her in and glanced around. Everything looked exactly the same.

Both her and Stef listened to the sound of someone coming down the stairs in a slow pace, and it wasn't long until Lena appeared before them in the doorway. She had her arms crossed over her chest but her facial expression wasn't really detectable. One thing that was certain to Callie was that Lena didn't seemed surprised at all. Stef must've told her.

"Hi, Callie," she began distantly, her voice feeling almost forced. "Stef, can I talk to you?"

The blonde already knew that she would be in trouble for bringing their daughter home with her, but the price to pay would be worth it. She could take Lena being mad at her for a few days, but she'd have to get over it.

The older brunette's eyes peered over toward Callie again and she finally noticed the bruise on her jaw. It felt almost like deja vu to Lena. Here she was back again, faced with the bruised a helpless girl in front of her.

The only difference she could tell was that Callie's eyes weren't pleading for help this time. Instead, they seemed almost fearful and filled with worry. But despite Lena's natural instinct to console her, she turned her attention away and began walking out of the living room, Stef began to follow.

The blonde whipped her body around to face Callie, "Wait here, please," she instructed her and waited for the teen to sit down on the couch before continuing to follow Lena into the kitchen and outside to the back porch.

Stef closed the door behind them. If she had to go this far from the living room to talk in private, then she knew Lena must've been really ticked off.

"I can't believe you," Lena said in a sulky voice as she gave Stef the death stare.

"I'm sorry," the blonde began to apologize, realizing she had no other choice in the matter.

"No you're not," her wife protested and hated that Stef was lying on top of it all. "You _chose_ to go against me on this. You knew what you were doing was wrong," she said harshly. "The least you can do is admit it."

Stef squinted her eyes at her in confusion. "Bringing our daughter home was wrong?" She challenged.

"She is not our daughter!" The brunette's voice rose louder than Stef was used to during their arguments.

The blonde appeared to be stunned into silence at Lena's choice of cold words. She definitely wasn't expecting this type of reaction from her.

The silent treatment, yes.

A brief altercation, yes.

But not this.

Although only after a few seconds of quiet, did Stef notice the water wanting to form in her wife's eyes which aggravated Lena even further. She didn't want Stef to think that she was emotional about this, because that would just lead her to believe that she cared. If she was being honest, she wasn't so sure about that anymore. Instinctively, Lena quickly wiped her tears away before she spoke again.

"Not anymore, Stef... I can't do this," she shook her head and stopped. "I'm sorry, but I won't go through this all over again because you can't leave well enough alone. Things were going so well."

"You won't," Stef tried to assure her. "You won't have to go through it all again. It's not like last time, honey. I promise," she said because she really believed it. "I swear Callie knows better. She's not going to try to leave again–"

"Until she does," the brunette quickly interrupted. "Then what?" she asked her wife. "What do we say to Jude? How are we going to tell him that the one person, who we both know, he cares about more than anything, just decided to get up and leave again? Without any warning? Don't you think this is going to kill him more than any of us?"

Stef stood there in awe, not wanting to blow up at her wife for not being able to move passed the grudge she had against Callie. However, she couldn't stand that she was using Jude in order to prove her point, which made absolutely no sense to the cop. To use Jude against Callie was the final straw.

"HOW DO YOU THINK HE'S GOING TO TAKE THE NEWS WHEN WE TELL HIM WE FOUND HER AND YOU REFUSED TO TAKE HER BACK IN? THAT WE HAD TO REALLY ABANDON HER THIS TIME?" Stef yelled out of frustration.

"Well, I'd hope he'd understand that we were doing the right thing here," Lena attempted to justify.

"The right thing for who?" the blonde continued accusingly.

"That's not fair, Stef," Lena pointed out. "We gave her _plenty_ of chances to change."

"So?" Stef challenged. "We don't just give up on family, Lena. Is that what you want to teach the kids? That they can't come to us when they mess up because you'll just... Cut them out of your life? Our lives?" The blonde squinted her eyes at Lena and hoped she'd be able to convince her otherwise.

"CALLIE DIDN'T COME TO YOU" Lena shouted when she felt the need to remind her of that very fact, without needing to ask how their conversation leading up to their arrival went. Lena knew how stubborn Stef was and she knew her wifewouldn't take no for an answer, even if Callie didn't want to come back. But what Lena also knew was that she, herself, was just as stubborn when it came to something she felt very strongly about. The brunette let out a deep sigh and she wondered if her wife would ever see passed whatever it was she wanted to see. "You found her and just decided you were going to bring her home. You just decide things without talking to me about it first, only this time you did come to me and made the decision by yourself. You completely ignored what I had to say and how I felt."

"You have to get over this, Lena," Stef answered flatly. She couldn't understand why Lena felt the way she did, when everything seemed so black and white to her. Callie messed up, but she was home. That was the most important thing. "She is our daughter and I'm not giving up on her. I'm sorry, but you can't ask me to do that. I know that this has been hard on you. I really do. But I can't make what she thought we did to her two years ago a reality now. Callie is staying, and that's it," Stef said sternly and stood strong. She was almost positive that there was nothing her wife could say or do that would change her mind about this.

Lena nodded after listening to Stef's words. Stef wasn't going to back down about this, but neither was she. Lena couldn't.

"Then maybe I should leave..." the brunette stared straight into her wife's eyes while she spoke.

To be continued...

 **A/N: I know I'm probably going overboard here but I like to explore my options in my stories :) I don't like to be too predictable. Where's the fun in reading that?**

 **Btw...Who's team Lena? Team Stef? Do you think Lena was serious at the end? Will Stef have to tell Callie to hit the road? Yikes...  
**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

As soon as Lena realized she was alone in their bedroom, the brunette finally allowed the tears to flow down from her eyes and onto her cheeks. She, herself, couldn't actually believe that she allowed the words to slip out of her mouth... And so easily. It wasn't like her to do something like this and she was well aware of it. She was always the first to give someone the benefit of the doubt and to forgive them. But even if she wanted to forgive Callie and give her a second chance, she felt as if she wouldn't be able to. She couldn't invite her back into their home with open arms like Stef had.

And it was far too late to take those words she said back now.

Not when Stef was still persistent on taking Callie in all over again.

How could she do this?

This was her fault.

Everything was fine.

Everything was better than fine.

Why did Callie have to come back now?

She shook her head and pulled her suitcase out from the closet, silently wondering if she should take a duffel bag instead.

Stef would have to come to her senses soon, right?

Maybe she shouldn't pack that much...

She shook her head at the thought. She didn't want to have to come back and get more clothes if it took longer than just a couple of days. Stef was just as stubborn as she was. With that thought, she threw the suitcase open on top of the bed and contemplated where to begin.

* * *

Stef stood silently outside when Lena walked in the house without another word. She was taken completely off guard by what her wife had said and got the most awful feeling come over her. It was as if she forgot how to move, speak or even breathe, like if she wasn't actually inside of her body anymore. It felt like a dream of some sort.

She couldn't really be serious? She thought to herself as she started to go over everything they had said in their conversation all over again. What else could she have told her to get her wife to change her mind about Callie? What did Callie do that was so wrong that would cause Lena to hold that much of a grudge against her? To just flee at the sight of their daughter? Something wasn't right.

She stopped in her thoughts when she saw the front door opening and Callie beginning to come out with both of her bags. Stef squinted her eyes at her as if she had to have been kidding. It was obvious that with all the yelling, the teen had to have overheard them.

Callie looked up to face Stef and tried to appear disconnected. "It's okay," she said simply. "I understand," she tried to add. "I'll come visit Jude as soon as I'm settled. I don't want to see him until I have somewhere steady to stay," she tried to say casually. She didn't need to let them think that any of this had gotten to her.

Stef nodded and her face depicted pure disappointment. "So you're just going to leave again? Nothing's changed? Is that it?" The blonde questioned as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'd rather do that than mess this up for Jude," Callie admitted.

Stef shook her head at Callie's statement. The cop both loved and hated that Callie always put her brother before herself. It was her best yet worst attribute. It was the thing that had made Stef fall in love with her yet it was also what Callie used to reason her constantly running away. How was that even possible? She wondered.

"And where are you going to go, may I ask?" She continued to question. "To your boyfriend? The one who beat you?"

"He's not my boyfriend," the teen was quick to answer. "And he didn't beat me," she tried to clarify. A few blows didn't really constitute as a beating to Callie.

"Those bruises beg to differ," Stef replied in a louder and more serious tone in an attempt to get the teen to realize just how serious it really was. But instead Callie shook her head slightly as if the blonde was just exaggerating.

"I've been through worse," she answered. "I can take care of myself. Don't worry about me," the girl answered.

"Telling a mom not to worry about her child is like telling her to stop breathing. It's impossible," Stef said calmly and finished with a sigh.

Callie adjusted her bag over her shoulder because the strap was beginning to hurt. She wanted to leave now that the conversation with Stef was making her feel worse and worse with every second that she stood there.

Stef read her mind. "I'll drop you off," Stef said when she felt Callie beginning to grow impatient. "Give me five minutes, okay?" She said as she reached for the car keys from her pocket and handed them over to the teen. "Wait in the car?" She suggested.

Callie considered telling he blonde that she could walk but didn't want to go back and forth with her on this. She was just dropping her off, she realized. That meant she had accepted what would happen... "Okay," she nodded as she reached for the keys.

A/N: Just curious, does this story seem as if it's going too slow/fast? I honestly want my readers' input.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Stef took a deep breath before making her way up the stairs as fast as she could, which wasn't exactly fast enough in her eyes. She felt too exhausted from having barely slept in two days and she felt as if everything was going in slow motion. Too much had happened in that time frame that the blonde honestly wondered how she was still functioning.

She opened the door to her bedroom, expecting to see her wife laying in bed and facing in the opposite direction so she wouldn't have to speak to her. It was what Lena would normally do when she was upset with her. The silent treatment was definitely her specialty at times like these. But instead and to her surprise, she saw the woman halfway done packing her suitcase.

Stef stared at her in awe for a few seconds, wondering if her wife could really be serious. When she snapped out of it, she let out a deep breath. Lena was definitely not going to make this easy for her, she thought to herself as she walked over toward the suitcase and began removing her wife's clothes from it. Lena attempted to snatch them away from her quickly afterward. "What are you doing?"

"What does it looks like I'm going?" Stef asked sarcastically but yet maintained a defeated tone in her voice from the exhaustion.

"Stop, Stef," her wife argued. "I need to go. I can't stay here with her."

"You won't have to," Stef responded, causing for Lena to loosen her grip on the clothes, allowing Stef to walk over and put them back in the drawer.

"What does that mean?" Lena asked out of confusion.

"Callie's leaving," the blonde chose to answer simply. "You don't want her here so she's leaving," the cop continued in a tone that said all of this was clearly Lena's fault.

Lena should've felt better about the news after the scene she had made downstairs, and this she knew. But for a reason she couldn't quite understand, she didn't.

Was it the way Stef made it seem?

As if she was acting like an immature child instead of an adult?

"Don't blame this on me," Lena voiced sternly.

"No? Who should I blame then?" The blonde questioned with obvious sarcasm.

"That's not fair," Lena argued. "I didn't ask for any of this."

"And Callie did?"

"No. You're trying to pressure us both into something neither of us want!" Lena retorted. "And only one of us already knows how that's going to end."

Stef stopped and turned around without grabbing any more clothes to stare at her wife. "You know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe I am pressuring her to come home but I really don't care about any of that at this point!"

Lena hissed.

Stef sucked in her breath in an effort to calm herself down before she, herself, said something she'd later regret. "I just..." the blonde stopped and considered what was the right point to argue. "I can't do nothing, Lena. I can't sit here and do nothing when it's so obvious that she needs our help."

"She hasn't asked for our help, Stef," Lena reminded her. "We can't help someone that doesn't want help. We can't save Callie, or whatever it is you think you're doing, when Callie doesn't want to be saved."

"Since when do I ever ask for help?" Stef retorted. "Some of us aren't so quick to let others lend a hand because we're afraid of what that would mean. Do you get that? ...It makes us feel useless like we aren't strong enough to handle things on our own. But we do. We do need help... And Callie..." Stef stopped to let out a deep breath. "Callie is the same way. She may not even know she needs to be saved but I can recognize it. I really can. So, no... No, I'm not going to just go back to pretending like she doesn't exist, just so that I can move forward. I wouldn't be me if I did that."

Lena knew that what her wife was saying held a lot of truth. Her passion to love and her never-ending strength were two of the things that made Stef who she was and made Lena fall in love with her in the first place. So listening to what she was saying now, didn't come as a surprise to her.

"Some one is hurting her, Lena," Stef reminded her in a saddened tone. "What kind of mother would I be if I… turned a blind eye to that?"

Lena hated the fact that Callie had obviously gotten herself in some serious trouble and the woman didn't want to see anything bad happen to her, no matter how angry she was. But she honestly felt as if there wasn't anything that could make her feel any different about Callie. She didn't have any hope that she had really changed in just those two years, especially when she never even came to see Jude.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Lena asked Stef. "I can't just sit here and smile at her and pretend that I wasn't affected by any of this either... Even if I wanted to Stef, I really don't think I can do that," the brunette admitted.

"I'm not asking you to, Lena."

Lena stared at her wife in confusion.

Stef felt the need to clarify. "That's exactly why I'm going to leave. I'll stay with Callie."

"What?" Lena was quick to interrupt. "No way, Stef. I'm not going to just let you do this."

"It's not up to you, honey," Stef said softly as she sat on the bed next to her wife and held her hand. "And it's only for a little while."

"No," Lena answered sternly.

"Both of you need some time to adjust to all of this. This isn't something that can just be overcome in one night, Lena. You know that... Maybe if I take Callie and stay somewhere else for a little while, you can use that time to get used to the idea. I don't want Callie to feel like a stranger in her own home and I don't want you to feel like I'm pressuring you into something you're not ready for."

"Then what do we do?" Lena asked in a slow and calm tone.

"We take things slow for now," the blonde answered. "Baby steps. Baby steps until everyone is on board with it."

Lena wanted to argue. She wanted to tell her wife that she didn't have to leave for her, and that she didn't have to take Callie far away just so that she'd be able to look Callie in the eye again. But she knew that she'd be lying if she had. Stef wasn't going to give up and this was something Lena knew she was going to have to face eventually, but she couldn't, at least not right now.

"I'm sorry," Lena finally said. And for the first time, Lena felt as if she had been really disappointing her wife.

How could she not be?

She was disappointing herself more.

Usually, she would be the first to drop everything to help someone in need... But here she was, refusing to let go of the past and forgive her daughter. It didn't make complete sense in her own mind either.

"It's okay," Stef assured her wife as she put her hand on Lena's arm. "Maybe this is for the best right now." "...Not to mention, there are still a few things I have to take care of that I should probably do beforehand anyway. Callie may react better to it, if there aren't so many people involved," the woman sighed.

Lena hadn't entirely been certain what Stef was referring to but she knew that it probably had something to do with the bruises on Callie's face. It was the tone she used which gave it away.

"Be careful," the brunette said before placing her head on her wife's shoulder.

Stef put her arms around Lena and placed a kiss on her forehead, "I always am."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Stef and Callie both exited the elevator to the second floor of the hotel. The older woman had been carrying her own bag along with one of Callie's, even though the teen hadn't noticed that one of the bags didn't belong to her. The cop hadn't exactly decided how was the best way to reveal the bad news to her daughter Callie walked slowly behind Stef and examined the vicinity which was a bit fancier than what she was used to.

 _How was she going to pay for this?_ she thought to herself as she tried to remember how much money she had in her own bag.

Immediately, she started to feel the stress beginning to overwhelm her. She still had to pay Tommy back, so spending money at this place was the very last thing she should be doing.

"Three-sixteen, three-sixteen," Stef repeated as she walked down the hallway and glanced at all of the doors. "Well, that's three- twelve," she said to herself as she stared down the hallway in confusion and didn't notice anymore rooms in that direction. "And we're going the wrong way," she continued before she turned around and went in the other direction and pointed Callie in the other way. "C'mon, I think it's over here."

Callie sighed heavily as every second that went by at this hotel just brought her more and more anxiety.

Stef smiled slightly, "C'mon, now. We weren't that far off," she tried to joke. "Just a few more steps."

"It's not that," Callie mumbled and she was almost positive the cop hadn't heard her.

"Here we go," the blonde said as she came to a stop in front of Room 316. The girl stood in back of her and couldn't remember a time that felt more awkward in her life. She watched carefully as Stef finally got the door open and pushed it all the way. She tilted her head as she glanced at the room in a bit of disgust. "Not exactly a suite at the Sheraton but it'll do," the woman reasoned before making her way inside and holding the door for Callie to come in.

The blonde stared at her daughter carefully and could sense that Callie seemed very uncomfortable about all of this by the utter silence that came from her. "Are you going to stay out there all night?" Stef teased in an effort to ease the tension in the room.

Callie looked Stef in the eyes as she tried to find the right words to say.

"Stef… uh, I can't afford this."

Stef responded with a sad smile. "I kinda know that, sweets."

"No," Callie corrected. "I mean, I don't need this. That's what I meant to say… My other place was fine."

"You're not staying at that other place," Stef responded in a serious tone before moving her gaze toward the door and closing it behind her daughter somewhat quickly. It was as if the blonde were afraid Callie would try to run if she left it open for too long. She knew that she needed to be able to trust Callie eventually. But now still felt like too soon for Stef to make that leap just yet.

"Why not?" Callie protested.

Stef let out an exaggerated breath and moved her gaze back toward the teen. She hated how difficult everything had to be with her daughter. She couldn't remember her always being this way. It was like she was getting worse and wanted to be more and more independent as she was getting older, which would have been understanding had she not been making the wrong decisions over and over again.

"Because," Stef began and then paused as she tried to think of a way to explain without making Callie feel like a child, because she knew it would just make Callie even more defensive. "...Because I don't think it's a good idea."

"But I do," Callie bit back. "I can't afford this place and I don't want you to pay for it," Callie continued to stare at her as she held onto her bag over her shoulder, not expecting to even put it down onto the floor of the hotel.

"You don't really have another option, Callie. I'm not letting you spend another night at that place when I know you're not safe there."

Callie shook her head in disbelief. "I'm fine, Stef. I told you that, okay? It only happened one time. It's not going to happen again."

"You're damn right it's not going to happen again," Stef answered smartly as she dropped her and Callie's bag onto the sofa.

The girl's eyes finally made their way onto Stef's black duffel bag and she took a second to take in exactly what she thought was suddenly happening. "Stef... What is that?"

Stef scratched her head and began walking over toward the kitchen area to the fridge. "It's my bag," she answered casually as she pulled the refrigerator door open. "Absolutely nothing," she answered herself before closing the door again. She would have to get food and water from the vending machines down stairs, she realized.

"Why is it here?" Callie crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the woman in confusion. She didn't like where this was going and how the blonde was just walking around the room and making herself comfortable, as if she planned on staying.

The cop moved her eyes back toward Callie and she couldn't help but feel and look as if she were a kid in trouble, despite who was actually speaking to her. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing but a sound came out at first. "Callie," she finally said softly.

"No, Stef," Callie interrupted. "I told you I didn't want this," she started to shake her head again and kept her tone and posture stern.

"You wanted to come home with me," Stef reminded her as she took it up another notch. _She wasn't the kid here,_ the cop tried to tell herself.

 _Callie was._

"So this is how we're doing it," Stef continued.

Callie felt as if she had just been slapped. _This woman couldn't really be serious?_ She kept asking herself.

"Now, I know this is the last thing you had in mind when you agreed to come back, but we're both just going to have to make it work. Lena needs some time to adjust to the idea, and I think it's fair to say that we need to give that to her."

"You're not going to mess up your family because of me," the teen answered in a harsh tone. She didn't mean to come off as harsh but she had to make a point. She didn't come back to literally tear their family apart. "I heard what Lena said. She said it was either her or me. So... you need to just go home to her and your family and to Jude," Callie kept her voice stern.

"It's not..." Stef stopped while she considered how to best respond to that. "Callie, you're not messing anything up."

"No," Callie continued to protest as if she wouldn't let this happen.

"Lena and I talked. And we agreed I would stay here with you for a little while."

"Why would she do that?" she asked Stef sarcastically as if her wife didn't really mean to suggest it. "You have to go home, Stef. I'll be fine. I promise," the teen attempted to assure the woman that she could take care of herself.

"Honey, I'm not asking for your permission," the blonde finally felt the need to let her know. Callie wasn't going to be in control of this no matter what she thought. She obviously didn't have control over much, Stef wanted to say but thought better than to argue about the terrible mess Callie had gotten herself in. "All I'm asking is for you to try."

"I did," the brunette said matter-of-factly.

"Then try harder," Stef suggested to her daughter with more strength in her voice, and she realized she was in fact, losing her patience with the teen. This wasn't the impression she wanted to give her so soon but she was too exhausted to be calm. "Look, sweets..." Stef tried in a softer tone. "We're both tired, okay. I know you're tired so... Can we please just take a breath from all this right now?"

Callie listened to her and didn't really know how to feel about it. She wasn't used to any of this, and that alone ticked her off. But she did agree with her on something. She was too exhausted to keep arguing about this, and they were both too persistent and resilient to give into the other's wishes.

"Why don't we just get some sleep and discuss it in the morning, okay? We're not going to get anything else resolved tonight. You and I both know that this can go on all night and into the morning, so we should just call it quits for today. Okay?"

Callie wanted so badly to argue but she kept thinking about what her mother said.

It really could go on all night and they had been doing this all day already. Her eyelids began to feel heavy as she watched the woman.

Stef grabbed Callie's bag and moved it over toward the bed. "You can shower first," the cop suggested in a soft and relaxed tone as she pushed the girl in the direction of the bathroom. "We'll figure it out later, Callie."

Later seemed so far away but yet so preferable to Callie, she realized before she shut the door behind her...

 **Next chapter: we'll find out more about Callie's situation with Tommy.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Callie's eyes slowly opened at the annoying sound of a bird chirping outside of their hotel room window. It was morning already and Stef laid very still, asleep in front of her and awfully close in proximity.

Stef shouldn't be here, Callie thought to herself as she recounted what happened yesterday in her mind. She hated the way Stef's presence was making her feel right now.

It was as if she felt guilty for not being able to take care of herself when she knew she should have been able to. She was technically an adult now... But here she was, being practically coddled as if she were a child by the blonde woman by sleeping in the same bed as her.

I hate her, Callie kept repeating in her mind while she stared at Stef. It was a total lie. This she knew as she gazed at the woman she had missed for years without even knowing. She eyed the cop carefully and studied her face with sudden interest. She looks older, Callie was beginning to realize... but still pretty. Unfortunately though, Callie's mind began to drift away from actually wanting Stef to be there to something completely different. Her anxiety just increased since she knew they were going to have to talk now. The idea of putting everything off until the morning was nice, yesterday.

But now, it was morning.

And it was as if the blonde could sense that she was being watched, causing her eyes to flutter open slightly. Callie instantly shut her eyes in an immediate attempt to pretend that she was still asleep but Stef smiled a little after already having had seen her.

"Relax," Stef whispered in an attempt to calm her daughter's fear. She too, wasn't exactly looking forward to the discussion they were going to have to have. She especially wasn't looking forward to the way she already assumed her daughter was going to handle the situation to begin with, with her guard all the way up and the "I'm fines" coming out of her mouth. She was too much like her mother, Stef was beginning to realize. But the good thing about that was that the blonde was sure that she'd be the only one that would get Callie to open up. She needed to give her daughter time and allow her to process everything at her own pace.

Callie opened her eyes as she watched Stef sit up from the bed and put her feet on the floor. The woman stretched her neck back and forth as if she hadn't slept very well last night. "Hungry?" She suggested to the teen carefully as she tried her best not to turn around and look at her, from fear of making her worry too soon. She wanted Callie to feel as if it were up to her the speed that today would go, since she knew very well that it was probably the only thing that would be up to her.

"Yeah," Callie answered simply at the relief of postponing the talk.

Mariana squinted her eyes at her mother as she was still trying to wake up when she walked into the bright kitchen. Jude, Jesus and Brandon were already sitting at the table, attempting to serve themselves breakfast.

"Good. You're all here," Lena said an an obviously unenthusiastic tone when she saw Mariana come in. The woman took a deep breath before she put the plate with the extra toast in front of them and sat down.

Mariana took a seat shortly after. "Did mom have to work again today?" She asked her mother when she noticed Stef wasn't there. It was Saturday so it was rare that both moms weren't home for breakfast.

"No," Jesus answered flatly before Lena could. All of their other children had been waiting for their sister to wake up so Lena would finally explain where their mother was and what was up with the awkward silence. Lena was never this quiet.

"Mom is not at work," Lena decided to answer Mariana first. "There, uh... There is actually something important that I would like to discuss with you all now that you're all awake."

Four pairs of eyes stared back at the woman as they waited for her to explain what was really going on.

"Okay?" Mariana pressed out of curiosity now. It sounded like bad news and she felt a little impatient since her mom was dragging it out longer that she should have.

Lena's eyes moved to focus more on Jude before she spoke. It was his reaction that she was concerned with the most. "Mom is... Mom's with Callie right now," she finally got the words to escape from her mouth which would've given her a sense of relief, had she been able to tell her son's expression right away.

Everyone squinted their eyes at her in confusion.

"Callie?" Brandon repeated as if he must've misheard her. It seemed like forever since they last saw or heard anything about the girl.

Lena could tell that Jude seemed at least confused about the news. What she did notice was that he wasn't as upset about Callie being back as she had thought he would be. She thought it would be okay to continue.

"Yes," Lena answered. "She's with Callie."

"Well, where are they?" Jude finally responded in a curious and eager tone.

"How did you guys find her?" Mariana asked next.

"Is she coming back here?" Jesus questioned.

Neither of her children had spoken with upsetting tones. Instead, they all expressed the understanding feeling of curiosity that they should have.

"Um," Lena began awkwardly. "Mom ran into her at work," she decided to answer somewhat honestly, omitting the part about exactly why she ran into her. "And she's... They're at a hotel for right now."

"Why?" Jude asked, not understanding why his sister was at a hotel right now instead of home with them now.

Lena couldn't help but feel guilty by his question. "Well... They needed to work some things out first. And I think we all need some time to take this in before Mom brings Callie home."

"What kind of things?" Mariana went for it.

Lena let out a deep breath. "You're definitely going to law school," Lena mumbled as she thought about how difficult the teen was making it for her. "We just all need a few days. I'm not sure exactly what kind of things and that's what Mom is trying to help her with. I just wanted you all to be prepared for the idea. Mom wants to make sure Callie wants to come back home."

"Of course she does," Brandon answered as if there were no question about it.

Lena felt as if she weren't so sure that what her son said was true but thought better than to say anything different in front of her children.

Jude sensed his mother's reluctance to Brandon's words and could help but ask his next question. He needed to know. "Do you not want her to come home?"

To be continued...


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Long story short, life got in the way. I got promoted at work and had to learn a billion things and I had no time for anything. Seriously... I had to take my work home and everything. Ugh! I didn't want to get fired and what not, so I couldn't let writing distract me or whatever. It's an accounting job and I didn't know crap about accounting so yeah...So sorry! Will be updating my stories more. Promise!**

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

"Can I take your order?" the red-headed waitress asked the two, causing for Stef to glance up in order to meet Callie's gaze; but the brunette had her eyes glued to the menu as if keeping them there was her only salvation. It was as if Callie thought that as long as she didn't acknowledge either of them, then none of this was actually happening. She wouldn't feel stuck in a situation where she had no say in the outcome yet again.

Stef was ready to order but she could tell that her daughter clearly was not. "We need a few more minutes," she responded to the waitress.

The redhead smiled, "Sure, take your time," she answered as she stared at Callie strangely.

"Thank you," the blonde finished as she watched the woman walk away. Her green eyes darted back to Callie who still hadn't taken her eyes off the menu as if she were being forced to make one of the most difficult decisions of her life rather than choosing between eggs or pancakes. Stef took a deep breath and smiled before speaking. "Callie, it's not a life or death decision here," she tried to joke.

Callie looked up at her ex-foster mother as if it actually was.

"Sweets, it's only awkward if you make it that way," the cop tried to suggest in order to get Callie to lighten up and realize this didn't have to be painful.

The teen glanced away toward the floor, which was the exact opposite of the reaction Stef was hoping for.

"Okay, how do you want to do this?" Stef asked her.

Callie's eyes finally met Stef's and she furrowed her eyebrows as if she misunderstood the question. "What do you mean?" she finally spoke.

Stef sighed out of frustration. She was trying to give Callie a choice in the way this would play out but she felt as if the teen wasn't getting that. It was as if her daughter was trying to deflect all of her questions and delay the conversation that was too important to prolong now.

"Okay," the cop began again when she gained her composure. "Do you want to come _home_?" she tried to ask in the most straight-forward yet delicate way as possible.

Callie shook her head instantly but her eyes clearly gave another answer. "No, Lena doesn't want me there."

"No," Stef voiced in a persistent tone. "Lena does want you there. She just doesn't realize it right now."

Callie squinted her eyes at the woman.

"Look, I know it doesn't make any sense to you right now but she just needs a little time to adjust to the idea. I love Lena with all my heart, but I know that it can take her a long time to forgive, especially when it's someone she really cares about."

"I don't think that's it," Callie protested.

"Don't say that," the blonde answered sternly. "You weren't there to see all the pain that you put her through, Callie..."

Callie appeared stunned into silence.

Stef felt the need to explain further. "She went through a lot Callie... Every time you called asking to speak to Jude, every time the police got a hold of you, every time there was an ounce of hope that you'd come home, she lit up with relief as did I… With every letter she wrote you when you were in juvie, she poured out her feelings on paper and then looked over to me and do you know what she'd ask?"

Not surprisingly, Callie didn't have an answer for her.

"She asked me if I thought you would actually read it this time… But after feeling betrayed so many times, she started to lose hope over and over again until she decided that she had none left to lose."

"So she gave up on me?" Callie nodded as if she understood and there still wasn't any chance that things would ever be okay between the two of them.

"No, she gave up on thinking you were ever going to come back to us. I didn't want to tell you this, but every time I tried to bring up your name, she shut me down. I think…" Stef paused and took a deep breath, "I think she tried to block you out because it was easier for her to accept the truth that way."

"So don't you think me coming back isn't such a good idea?" Callie reasoned. "Especially if Lena already got over me."

"She didn't get over you," the blonde corrected. "She just couldn't deal with the thought of losing you over and over again so she created a void. It was the only way she thought she'd be able to cope with all of it."

"Then, how come you didn't? Create a void, I mean?" Callie asked out of curiosity.

Stef sighed and wondered if she should truthfully answer Callie's question. "I want to tell you that I didn't. That I always knew there was a chance that you'd come back to us… if not for us, then for Jude. But I think I did try to block you out and I may regret saying this but you have to try to understand, Callie. It was really hard your mama and me. It was as if we were chasing after a shadow and hoped that we would actually be able to catch it one day. And with every day that went by, it was getting more difficult to believe that you wanted anything to do with us."

"I know I messed up," Callie admitted as she let a tear escape from her eyes. She quickly wiped it away but a few more came streaming down her cheek without her control.

"Hey," Stef said softly as she grabbed Callie's hand from the table and squeezed it. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad about yourself, okay?" she stopped and waited for Callie to say something in response but she didn't. "I forgive you just like you forgave me for leaving you in juvie to begin with. _We all_ messed up here, Callie. It wasn't just you."

"But I ruined everything," Callie sobbed. "And for what? It was all for nothing."

Stef stood up from her seat and scooted on the other side of the booth in order to wrap her arms around her daughter's body and console her. She brought Callie's head toward her chest and gently placed a few kisses on it before speaking again. "Shhhh, Callie, honey. Don't cry," the woman tried to soothe as she attempted to hold onto the girl tighter, which was something she had subconsciously wanted to do ever since she saw her 2 nights ago. "This is nothing that can't be fixed."

Callie tried to take in some air and stop her crying in order to speak. "You make it sound as if it's so easy."

"Well, that's because it is," Stef said with certainty. "You just need to stop fighting it and accept that you _are loved and that you are wanted_... Lena will come around soon. Don't you worry about her. She's too stubborn..." Stef could feel Callie beginning to loosen up and come around which made the woman relax as well. "You know, when Lena and I got into our first fight, she didn't take my calls for almost two weeks."

Callie sat up straight to listen and see the woman at the same time.

"I got so frustrated with her and I couldn't understand why she wouldn't just let me apologize for what happened."

Callie took a short while to respond. "What was the fight about?"

"Mike," Stef said in an exaggerated tone as she rolled her eyes while recounting the memory. "It was so stupid… But long story short, he sent me a text, well a _picture_ by accident. Let's just say that it wasn't meant for my eyes, and Lena saw it first."

Callie's mouth dropped. "Oh no," she mumbled.

"Oh yes," Stef nodded. "Anyway, your mama got the wrong idea and thought Mike and I were back together and refused to speak to me and let me explain. Remind you of anyone?" Stef paused to ask her daughter.

Callie felt guilty.

"So the only way I could get her to hear me out was to force Mike to go to the school and explain the situation to her."

"And then what happened?" she asked.

"Oh, she told him she'd put his balls in a blender if it ever happened again," Stef laughed as she remembered how threatening her wife could be when provoked.

Callie's jaw dropped.

"Yeah, I shouldn't have told you that," the blonde was beginning to regret but couldn't help but continue to smile. "The point that I was trying to make is that Lena is very stubborn when it comes to forgiving the people that she loves. If she didn't love you Callie, she would have forgiven you long ago instead of trying to erase you from her memory all together."

"So I should be glad that she doesn't want anything to do with me anymore?"

"Correct," Stef agreed. "As bad as that sounds, it's the truth. When it comes to someone that we really care about, some of us fall harder than others, and it's more difficult for us to get back up afterwards. I'm sure that you can relate? Yes?" she asked her daughter.

Callie nodded as she thought about what the woman was saying.

"Good," the blonde said as she felt her phone in her pocket vibrate. She wasn't sure who it was but she quickly pulled it out to check. She read the text from her wife and then smiled.

Callie looked back at the menu in order to distract herself again, but a few seconds later Stef laid the phone directly in front of the teen, forcing her to read it.

 _ **I want the both of you to come home.**_

The brunette stared at the screen as if she wasn't sure what to make of all of this now. Everything felt as if it were happening so fast to her.

"I told you she'd come around," Stef offered her daughter a soft smile.

 **To be continued...**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Stef pulled up into the garage of their house and pushed the gearshift into park. She looked over to her daughter and watched as she stared back at the house with a blank expression on her face. The cop wondered if getting up and starting to grab their bags from the trunk would be the smartest move.

 _It would be quick and painless for the both of them_.

But she couldn't help but fear what pushing Callie would do. It seemed as if that was all she was doing lately.

"Let me know when you're ready," the blonde suggested in a gentle tone. "We don't have to go in right away. We can take as long as you need."

Callie took a deep breath before she turned to look at the woman. The teen simply stared at her in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Stef asked, wondering just what she had done wrong this time.

"This," Callie gestured to her mother. "The way you're treating me. Like if I'm a doll or something. You're talking as if I might just break if you make the wrong move."

Stef took in a deep breath. "Well, maybe I don't want to make the wrong move again, Callie. I'm just trying to give you the option, my love."

"I've already made my choice," the teen said simply. "I've decided to come back."

"And I'm proud of you for doing that. I know this all must've been very difficult for you–"

"You're doing it again," Callie interrupted as she shook her head and stared back at the house. She didn't like being treated as if everyone had to walk around eggshells in her presence. As if she'd change her mind and leave again, the second things got hard. "Stef, you're asking me to trust you without you being able to trust me…being able to trust that I want to stay."

Stef sighed. "Well, I'm sorry you feel that way, sweets. I just want you to feel a hundred percent comfortable when you walk back into that house. I didn't want you to feel like I was pushing you because–"

"You're afraid I'd want to leave," Callie finished for her.

There was a short silence after the girl spoke. Stef knew that her daughter was right but she didn't want to admit it.

"Well, I won't," the teen tried to assure her.

"Well," Stef nodded. "Then, good."

* * *

Callie took in a deep breath as she watched Stef open the front door of her home. She was nervous more than anything but she had to do this. She had to at least try. The last thing she wanted to do was spend the rest of her life wondering "What if?"

And what pulled her in even more was the thought of seeing her baby brother again.

She didn't care how old he was. To her, Jude was always the baby and the best part of all of this.

"She's here. Come quick!" Callie heard Mariana yell not very far from the doorway. Callie expected them to be there but the last thing she expected was to have to see them all at once.

Stef pulled the door all the way open and smiled at the rest of her children who were practically running toward the entrance.

"Callie!" Jude shouted before he threw his arms around his sister the instant he saw her. She barely got a glimpse of his face but it was enough to make her smile widen as she embraced him with a tighter grip. It wasn't until he got so close to her that she could remember just how much she loved and still loves him.

"Jude," she said with a smile as she closed her eyes and took in the moment that she longed for since the day she left. _How could I leave ever leave him?_ She thought to herself suddenly.

"We missed you," Mariana added as she forced herself into their hug.

"I'm glad that your back," Brandon added in a soft tone which caused Callie to open her eyes and meet his gaze.

"Same here," Jesus said.

"Okay," Stef yelled. "Mariana, Jude, let's try not to suffocate her the second she walks in the door. We don't want her dead yet," she tried to joke even though she considered that it might've been too early to do so.

Mariana and Jude let go of her.

"So where have you been? Where are you living? We have so much to catch up on," Mariana continued. "Like seriously, you have no idea how gloomy this house has been without you."

"Yeah," Brandon mumbled as he squinted his eyes at Mariana for her choice of words. "It was pretty gloomy."

Stef decided to chime in, "Jesus, why don't you be a gentleman and bring Callie's bag up to her room. Brandon, you can grab mine and do the same."

"You want your bag in Callie's room?" Brandon asked her.

"No, B. _My room_. Take it to _my room_ ," she rolled her eyes. "Where's Mama?"

"Right here," Lena said as she made her way out of the kitchen and towards the hallway where everyone else was. Her eyes immediately met Stef's and the blonde couldn't help but notice the gleam in her eyes. She hated being apart from Stef and regretted how their last interaction turned out. Stef walked over to her wife and kissed her on the lips and pulled away. "I'm sorry for what I said," Lena said with tears in her eyes.

"Honey, we're fine," Stef assured her as she held the woman's head in her hands.

Lena nodded before falling into her wife's arms once more. The brunette knew she messed up by letting Stef go, but she tried to do the right thing by asking her to come back.

It wasn't until she opened her eyes again to meet Callie's that she felt a strange feeling take over her body. She didn't feel warm and safe anymore.

A hard feeling of regret and started to sweep over her. Her heart froze as if she wasn't sure she'd made the right choice again.

She wanted to love Callie. She wanted to have the unconditional love that all mothers should have for their children. But she couldn't help how she felt when she physically saw her other daughter. It was anger, fear, hope, and resentment all at once.

Callie looked away from the woman after getting an awful feeling from that look she didn't quite understand. _I told Stef I can do this_ , she repeated in her mind. _Everything's going to be fine,_ she tried to convince herself.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Callie walked into her old room and glanced around it, taking in just how different it looked compared to less than two years ago. Her bed wasn't there anymore for starters. It was just Mariana's bed, smack in the middle of the room with all of her things surrounding it.

Mariana came in directly after, noticing how strange this must've felt for her foster sister. There was an awkward silence as she glanced around the scene, wondering what the right thing to say would be. "You were gone for a while… I wanted to leave your stuff up, but Mama-" Mariana paused, not wanting to admit to Callie in much words what she already confessed by not saying much.

"No," Callie said simply with a nod to ensure her sister that everything was okay. "I get it. It's fine."

Mariana squeezed her lips together as she really thought about it. It wasn't. The Latin girl didn't know what she would do if her mother would completely give up on her as she did on Callie. She even had some restless moments just thinking about the possibility that Lena would do the same to her since it all went down.

"I owe you an apology," Callie broke the silence again. "I owe everyone in this house an apology. I shouldn't have left."

"Yeah," Mariana said as if Callie wasn't completely to blame. "But we all know why you left…" She shrugged her shoulders. "I think most of us get it now."

"Really?" Callie asked with a sarcastic smile. "Because I still don't even get it."

"Well, yeah. It was totally stupid… and selfish," Mariana admitted. "But it's all in the past now, right? I'm pretty sure everyone's mellowed out since then. And besides, you're here now. You're making an effort. I see no point in dwelling on what happened like... ten years ago."

"Two years," Callie corrected. "It was almost two years."

"Trying to make a point," Mariana said. "We're still your family, regardless of whether or not your posters are on the wall. No one is going to screw that up because of a stupid mistake you made because moms sent you to that god awful place."

 _Girls United_ , Callie remembered.

It was like a small glimpse of a memory now. She barely spent half a day there before Amanda convinced her to escape with her. She wasn't even sure the place would've been that _awful_ , considering the mess Amanda turned out to be.

Callie's phone began to ring, cutting their conversation quickly short.

She knew it could've been only one person. She already called her boss and informed him that she wouldn't be coming into work for a few days.

Callie pursed her lips and breathed out hard before she grabbed her cell phone from her back pocket and glanced at the screen.

"Who is it?" Mariana asked curiously.

Callie shook her head as she stared down at the screen and listened to the tone. And with every ring after the first, she began hearing the phone getting louder and louder.

Still, she felt obliged to answer Tommy's phone call despite everything.

"I'll be right back," she said as she walked out of the room and toward the bathroom. She closed the door shut before answering. "Tommy, what do you want?"

"Where. The. Hell. Are. You?" he asked in a stern and demanding tone.

The teen shut her eyes tight, hating the sound of his voice when he was more than upset. "It doesn't matter," she said simply.

"Callie, don't you dare fuck with me right now. I have been calling you nonstop for days and you've been ignoring my calls? Who the hell are you with?"

"No one."

"You better bring your ass back here right now before I–"

"NO!" Callie shouted back into the phone without hesitation. She couldn't bear to listen to any more threats spewing from his mouth.

She was tired.

She was tired of being the victim.

She was tired of everyone taking advantage and taking complete control over her no matter where she ended up.

It had to stop.

And what better time than now, she thought.

"I told you… I told you that I was done with this. I'm done with us," she ended with hopes that it would be the last words of their conversation, but knowing fully well that that wasn't likely, considering Tom's personality.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You think you're leaving me bitch? Are you fucking crazy? Do you have any idea what I would do to you?"

"I already left. I need you to stop calling me," Callie answered. "Good bye, Tom," she finished as she quickly and boldly hung up the phone. It wasn't until directly after doing so, that she felt an overwhelming sense of fear take over her body as a shiver when down her spine and goosebumps filled both of her arms.

She felt proud of what she'd done but she wasn't sure if her fear was much stronger than that. The teen shoved her phone back in her back pocket and glanced at herself in the mirror.

She wanted to cry.

Normally, she would cry.

But she couldn't even force herself to shed a single tear right now .

Perhaps it was the relief of being free from Tommy's grasp, or perhaps it was from all the emotions she had dealt with in just the past few days that had her emotionally drained. Or maybe it was something else.

She didn't know anymore. What she knew was that she felt completely detached from the person she was before this moment. And she didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

It was as if she felt almost invincible now. She began turning her fear into something else. Something that wouldn't make her feel weak. Something that was bigger than Tommy's wrath.

A soft knock on the bathroom door took her out of her own deep thoughts.

"Callie?" she heard her mom ask.

To be continued…


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Stef waited for a few seconds as her mind worried frantically at the sound of her daughter's silence. She knew exactly whom Callie was talking on the phone with, but she wasn't sure for how long. What she told him, what he said to her…

"Callie, open the door," she finally ordered in a stern yet soft voice. They hadn't discussed him much. She was too busy trying to convince her to come home and stay there.

Callie hesitated on the other side.

 _How much of the conversation had she heard?_

 _Did she hear anything at all?_

"Please, Callie. Don't do this," Stef pleaded with her. "We can't go back after we made it this far."

Callie took a deep breath before for forcing herself to reach for the door knob and twist it open, pulling the door towards her slowly.

Stef sighed in relief. "Good girl," she said in a low tone before walking toward her and grabbing the phone slowly from the teen's hand. "I can't believe I didn't even consider the possibility," she blamed herself. "How long?"

Callie pressed her lips together and glanced away. "How long, what?" Callie tried to play dumb even though she knew it was far too late for any of that.

"How long has Tommy been in contact with you?" Stef asked her, even though she was already scrolling through the incoming and outgoing call history on the girl's phone.

"It doesn't matter. I told him to stop calling me," Callie answered as if that just solved the problem at hand.

"Yes, I heard that," Stef admitted as she her eyes moved from the phone to meet the teen's gaze. "And what has he been saying to you? Has he been threatening you?" she asked a little more seriously. Callie sensed the angry look in her eyes and couldn't help but become nervous, even though she knew that her mother's anger wasn't being directed towards her. Still she didn't want her to turn this into a bigger problem than it was. She really felt like it was over between them now.

"Uh- I –," she struggled with her response. "It doesn't matter what he said. Not anymore," the teen answered casually.

"Of course it matters," Stef interjected.

"Why?" Callie raised her voice. "Why does it matter, if I never have to see him again?"

"Because your safety matters," the blonde interrupted.

"But I'm here. And I'm not going back there. So why does what happened in the past matter? You just said that we can't go back."

"Honey, I was talking about you. That's completely different."

"How?" the girl asked with seriousness depicted all over her body language, from the expression on her face to her composure.

"Because we can't just let him get away with this. He's harassing you, Callie. I would know." Stef responded back.

Callie shook her head in disbelief. She wanted to argue with the cop, to tell her that she was wrong, but how could she? She knew that Stef was just trying to protect her, but she wanted to move forward from that part of her life. She felt that she needed to forget about Tommy in order to move forward. She didn't want to rehash something just because what he did upset Stef. The situation was a dead-end.

"Look, I don't want you to worry about this," the woman tried to rationalize. "This is difficult for you to understand; honey, I know that… And I don't expect you to. But what I do need you to understand is that my job as your mother is to protect you. Even if you feel that I'm going overboard or whatever it is that your feeling, I need you to let me do my job. Part of that is making sure that he stays away from you and making sure that he knows that he is out of your life for good. Okay?"

Callie remained silent, partly because she knew that there was nothing she could say that would get her to change Stef's mind and partly because some part of her knew that Stef was right.

"I'll take care of it, love," Stef tried to assure her daughter.

Lena came out of the bathroom in her pajamas. She was toweling drying her hair, after having got out of the shower when she saw Stef standing at the far end of the wall talking on the phone.

"Let me know what you find," the blonde finished before hanging up the phone with Mike and glancing up at her wife.

"Find what?" Lena questioned when she saw the look on her wife's face. The blonde was trying to act as if it was nothing but Lena could see right past all of that. Stef's eyes always gave her away.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just work stuff. No big deal. I'm taking care of it," Stef hoped that by saying that she would put an end to the conversation. She sat down on her bed and took off her shoes before lifting her legs onto the bed and rummaging through Callie's phone.

Lena nodded as she tried to determine whether or not to let Stef continue lying to her since she didn't want to get into an argument on the same day she finally got her family back together. She attempted to change the subject when she saw the flip phone Stef had in her hand. "Who's cell phone is that?"

Stef continued to go through the incoming texts from Tommy. "It' Callie's."

"Why are you going through Callie's phone?" she asked out of curiosity.

Stef sighed, not wanting to lie to Lena but not wanting to give her any more reason to be upset with the teen. "It's no big deal, Lena," the cop repeated. "I'm taking care of it."

"Stef, you know I don't like secrets," the brunette admitted as she threw the towel on the chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "What's really going on?"

Stef contemplated whether or not to respond with the truth. "… The guy she was with. The one that was hitting her. He won't stop harassing her. I'm trying to track him down."

Lena remained silent for a few seconds. "…He called her?" she finally brought herself to ask.

"Several times," the blonde admitted. "And I was too blind to see it."

"What'd he say?"

"We both know she's not going to tell me. Good thing is she's not going to have to. There's enough death threats along with other disgusting things on her phone from Tommy that we can easily tie to his name. We just have to find him now."

"Death threats? Why?"

"Because… he thinks he can scare her into coming back, but there's no way in hell I'm going to let that happen. He has no clue who he's dealing with."

"Where is he?" she asked Stef.

"Hopefully, at his home address. Mike's stopping by now," she said as she placed Callie's cell phone on the nightstand. "It's being taken care of."

Lena nodded as she gave Stef a kiss on the lips, even though she had a million questions in her mind, but none of them were for Stef.

"And what about Callie? How is she doing with all of this?" the brunette questioned.

"Good. She's finally telling me the truth anyway. That's a start."

Lena stared fixated on Callie's cell phone on the nightstand. She couldn't help but feel a sense of relief that the teen didn't have it in her possession anymore, but something about having this new information scared her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

* * *

Mariana couldn't sleep. It wasn't that having Callie back home was making everything all the more awkward for her even though it was. She was happy to have her sister back although it was a little weird for Mariana to go back to sharing her bedroom. She hadn't even considered how strange it must've felt for Calloe. The Latin girl couldn't help but worry. If Callie were to sneak out in the middle of the night, as she had done before, Mariana couldn't help but blame herself for it.

 _They shared rooms the last time she left._

 _How had she not heard her sister sneaking out?_

 _Packing?_

 _Had Callie packed while she was sleeping right next to her?_

 _How could she not have heard that?_

 _How had she not heard the bed creak when her sister got up from her own bed… the door screeching open and closing as she left?_

 _She couldn't help but blame herself for not being able to stop her sister. She was the closest person near her aside from Jude._

"Are you asleep?" Mariana finally asked.

Callie opened her eyes when she sensed that something was wrong in her sister's voice. It was obvious that there was something on her mind. The teen turned her body around in her bed.

"Not yet," she answered simply.

There was an even more awkward silence. It was never this awkward between them.

"What's up?" Callie brought herself to ask.

"No, nothing," Mariana answered. "I just wanted to know. That's all."

"Why?" Callie couldn't help but ask.

Mariana shrugged her shoulders but she was never one to hold her tongue no matter the fact that she knew that she should. "Look," she began. "You know I love you, right?"

Callie knew it was coming. There was bound to be some sort of backlash sometime from Mariana.

"It's just… I can't help but get a feeling that you're not here to stay."

"I am," Callie tried to assure her.

"You say that now but you weren't here then. You weren't here to see how everyone fell apart. Moms argued so much that I was sure they were getting a divorce. After a few months passed, Stef wanted to keep looking for you… and mama didn't."

"I know," Callie said. "She gave up on me. And I don't blame her for that."

"Lena had to. It was either that or let it keep ruining her… For a few days after you left, she didn't go to work. She stayed home most nights, sitting by the phone. Just hoping that you'd call or come back. You weren't here to see how messed up she was. At first it was mama that had hope. Stef didn't have any. She was almost positive she'd never see you again and even I was too. It wasn't until she saw you that night when she was working, that mom started caring. And that made Lena really mad."

"I know."

"She was mad because she didn't want to care so much. She was afraid that if she did and you just decided to leave again, she was going to regret it because all that hurt she felt was going to come back."

"I'm not. I'm not going to leave again."

"You say that now. And I want to believe you. But I was here. It was us who had to pick up the pieces. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that you're back. I just… really hope you _are_ back."

"I am."

"I hope so."

Callie sat up from her bed and tied a hair in a ponytail before getting up.

"Where are you going?" Mariana demanded.

"To pee," Callie answered. "And I need a glass of water." Callie wanted to give a smart remark back but she knew that Mariana had the right to not believe her. She had to give it time first.

Mariana breathed in deeply and tried her best to let it go. She couldn't' control everything that happened in the house. She had to believe Callie despite not wanting to. "Just don't be long."

Callie shook her head as she decided to get up.

"You're going to have to trust me some time," Callie added.

* * *

Lena took a sip from her cup of tea and continued to read the texts on Callie's phone. She had snuck out of her and Stef' bedroom and couldn't help but take the phone along with her. Stef had seen everything on it and refused to share the information. Lena had the right to know what they were dealing with, what Callie was dealing with. She had to read the incoming texts from Tommy.

 **1\. Come home before you make things worse.**

 **2\. Where the hell are you.**

 **3\. Callie, stop playing games. If you come home now, we can work things out.**

 **4\. Callie, I'm trying to work with you.**

 **5\. What the fuck do you think you're doing? If you go to the police, I will take you down with me. Don't be stupid.**

 **6\. I love you. Just come back to me. We can still make this work. I promise.**

 **7\. Bring your ass home. You know that I will find you and gut you like a fish. You're dead!**

 **8\. You think you're done with me. We're not over until I say we're over.**

 **9\. I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't mean it. Call me and let' talk this through.**

Lena couldn't help but feel queezy and disgusted after reading the texts. This guy thought he had control over Callie in ways that Lena didn't even want to imagine. _This is the type of person she was living with?_ She wondered. _What was Callie thinking?_

She couldn't fight the urge anymore. She had to do it.

And before she knew it she was dialing Tommy's number from Callie's cell and the phone was glued to her ear.

The woman had no idea what she was doing or if it was a good idea or not, but she couldn't stop herself from doing it. The anger she felt radiating from her body was enough to not hang up or give in.

"Hello," a man on the other line answered.

Lena couldn't' speak at first. She fumbled to hold the phone and wasn't even sure the guy would answer.

"Callie, where the hell are you?"

"This isn't Callie," Lena found her voice.

"Then who is this? Where is Callie?" the man demanded.

"This is her mother. And you need to stop harassing my daughter," Lena demanded in an even angrier tone.

"Callie's mother is dead. Who the hell is this, really?"

"No. If you call or text this number again, then you're the one who's dead!" Lena shouted into the phone. And as soon as she did, she felt the phone call disconnect. She let out an exaggerated breath. She had wanted to say so much more but what cut off before she got a chance to.

Callie walked down the stairs and made her way over to the kitchen. She saw that the light was one and wondered if she should turn back. But some thought in her mind, allowed her to keep going.

Lena heard the footsteps and assumed it was her wife at this time of night. She shoved the cellphone in the pocket of her robe not wanting to explain the call to Stef. The blonde was certainly not approve of the idea.

Callie walked in and once she got a look at Lena's face, immediately regretted it. "Oh I'm sorry… I didn't know you were in here." And as soon as she turned around to leave, she heard the woman's voice.

"Callie, wait," Lena stopped her. "Stay," the woman suggested.

Callie froze and wondered if that was such a good idea. She had felt enough guilt for the day. She didn't want to feel anymore. Or hear about how badly she had destroyed the family. She was trying to stay so that she could prove them all wrong and show them how much she had changed, but the entire day's events was just pushing her further out the door. Staying was becoming a much harder task as every minute gone by.

"Please," Lena added.

Callie knew that she owed her at least that much. The least she could do was allow Lena to say what she had to despite how difficult it would be for Callie to hear. With much skepticism, she turned her body around to meet Lena's eyes.

"Okay," she agreed.


	17. Chapter 17

Callie awkwardly made her way over to the fridge and opened it. She reached for a water bottle and closed the fridge again, twisting the cap open in the process and leaning against the refrigerator door thereafter. She had an idea of what she wanted to say but everything Mariana just said was making her second guess herself. How could she possibly make things right with Lena after what she'd put her through?

Lena attempted to appear as unbiased as possible, wanting to cast aside all of her own hurt feelings that seemed almost irrelevant at this moment. "Why don't you have a seat?" Lena suggested.

Callie thought about her suggestion as more of a question. Why? The teen thought to herself. Because I need to prepare what I want to say to you first. That's why, she answered her own question in her mind. But instead of saying that out loud, she obliged and sat down on the seat directly across from the woman, taking a sip of her water to keep her hands busy so that Lena couldn't see them trembling.

Lena studied Callie's body language. She noticed her refusal to make eye contact and the way she fidgeted with the water bottle in her hands. The woman couldn't help but feel guilty for basically putting both of them in this position. Of course, Callie would feel uncomfortable after what Lena had said.

"Look," Callie broke the silence just as Lena was about to open her mouth. She knew she had to do it sometime or another so it was best to get it over with than deal with worrying every second that went by. "I'm really sorry…about everything," she started off slowly. "About what I put you through and what I put the family through. And if I could do everything all over again, I would change everything… I wasn't thinking about the consequences and I didn't realize how selfish I was when I left or when I refused to read your letters or refused to talk to you and Stef when you came to see me. I just thought…" Callie paused, not really wanting to go on. Because if she did and Lena didn't answer or agreed with what she thought, it would make her want to leave. And Callie was trying so hard to stay... for Stef, for her siblings and for herself.

"You just thought?" Lena questioned as she waited for Callie to continue. She wanted to push her into telling how she really felt about all of this. Lena wanted answers but she also wanted the girl to be completely honest with her and feel comfortable enough to do so. It was the only way they were going to be able to make things better.

"I just thought you… you and Stef didn't w-want me anymore," she stuttered. "I didn't want to see you or read your letters because I didn't think I could take it. I didn't want to have the words glued to mind. I thought it'd be easier to pretend they didn't matter to me, that you didn't matter," Callie wiped away her tears before they could fall down her cheek. "Its sounds so stupid now that I say it out loud."

"Trust me, it doesn't," Lena admitted as she reached for Callie's hand and held it into her own. "You were just trying to protect yourself from getting hurt."

Callie couldn't help but feel confused about Lena's behavior toward her. It was as if she had done a complete 180 on her. Why had everything suddenly changed? It was just yesterday that she and Stef had to leave the house because Stef had brought Callie with her.

"You don't have to feel sorry for me," Callie was quick to say as she brought her hand back to her side.

"Honey," Lena attempted to prove otherwise. "I don't."

"Then why are you being so nice to me? Mariana and Stef told me about how awful I made you feel when I left. I know you don't want me here. And you're right to feel that way. I screwed up everything."

"I don't feel that way," Lena retorted. "I did," the woman confessed she stared Callie in the eyes, wanting nothing more than to comfort her. "And I can honestly say that I'm ashamed of that... I love you, Callie. No matter how much I tried to convince myself that I didn't. I love you. I don't want you to ever think otherwise. And I apologize if I ever made you feel that way. This was hard on me too."

"I know," Callie said.

"No, you don't," Lena disagreed. "And I hope you never will... When I brought you home with us almost two years ago, it felt like I was doing the right thing. I hoped that you would stay safe when you were with us, even if it was for a little while... I didn't expect..." Lena paused. "To end up caring for you and Jude as much as I did. It happened so fast and then before I knew it you were gone. Was that it? Was it because all of this was happening so fast that you felt like you couldn't come to us about this kiss with Brandon?" Lena hadn't wanted to go there tonight after learning about what she had about Tommy, but her mind kept running over it. Callie would've never been in that mess if she just stayed a Girls United or better yet, never run away in the first place.

"No, that's not it," Callie voiced shamefully. "I just couldn't tell you. It had nothing to do with you or Stef."

"Really? Because I'm the one that brought you home with me, Callie. I started all of this and I honestly thought you felt safe enough to come to me with anything. It felt like we had a connection. I thought I understood you."

"I did feel safe. I've never felt more safe anywhere else since my mom died," Callie voiced sternly.

"Then why didn't you come to us?" Lena asked.

"Because it wasn't about just me... I couldn't let my own feelings get in the way with Jude's safety. I already made that mistake once when I wrecked my foster father's car. I promised him I wouldn't do it again. He deserves a good home and I thought I was doing the right thing. The right thing for everyone."

"And you think you don't deserve a good home?" Lena questioned her next.

Callie shook her head slightly. I don't matter, she wanted to respond but decided not to.

Then teen knew that if it ever came down to the two of them, Jude was always the priority.

"Callie, I understand why you didn't come to me. I understand why you would put your brother's needs first. It's one of the things I've always admired about you. It is. But I don't understand why you wouldn't trust us when we had you sent to Girls United. I don't understand why you shut us out and refused to read our letters. We came to your hearing Callie. Didn't that give you some idea that we still cared about you."

Callie thought back to those times she received a letter from her parole officer and chucked it out of the window while he was driving. She thought back to when she received even more letters and ripped them to shreds without ever thinking twice. She wanted to wipe them from her memory completely.

"I just need to know what you were thinking. Did you really think that we didn't want you?"

"That's what I needed to think," Callie finally answered.

Lena furrowed her eyebrows and stared blankly at her daughter. "I'm sorry but I don't understand... You needed to think that we didn't want you?" She repeated for clarification.

"Yes," Callie answered sternly. "I needed to believe that you were mad at me because it made my anger towards you and Stef justifiable. I was so mad at you two for what you said in that courtroom. You said all of these nice things about me... that I brought so much love into your home and then you said you didn't want me to come live with you anymore… I needed to feel like it was my decision to leave because you and Stef hated me. I had to hold onto that because I didn't think … I didn't think I could handle getting hurt again."

"We said we weren't prepared to bring you home yet. We had every intention to bring you home, Callie. We just weren't ready to. We were afraid that something else would happen which would cause you to run away again. We needed you to learn how to control that impulsivity and that there were consequences for your actions. We also wanted it to be your decision to come home. It wasn't up to us to force you to be a part of this family." Lena sighed, "And that was what you were supposed to work on in Girls United."

"But I didn't stay long enough," the girl thought to herself as she recalled running away from there with Amanda soon after arriving.

"No, you didn't," Lena agreed as she put her hand on top of Callie's hand and squeezed gently. "But you did come back. That counts for something. Still, you have to learn to trust us. I can't promise you that you'll never get hurt again, Callie. I can't promise you that nothing bad will ever happen. But I can promise you one thing… Stef and I will never intentionally hurt you," Lena finished as her eyes became teary.

"So you're not still upset?" Callie asked cautiously, not entirely sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Lena let out a deep breath. "No. I think I just needed to understand what was going through your mind before I could fully let go, myself. How could I be upset with you for something that I am guilty of as well? We both tried to flip a switch and turn off our feelings and look where that got us? Don't ever doubt how much I love you, Callie. No matter what I may say."

Callie nodded.

"I am sorry, Lena."

"I am too. I have so many regrets about the decisions we made back then, but going over them again now with you won't change anything. I think there are bigger things on our plates now anyway."

"So… we're okay?" Callie asked.

Lena stood up and walked to stand behind Callie, wrapping her arms around her. "We're better than okay," she answered before kissing her forehead.


	18. Chapter 18

**Warning: this is the last chapter**

 **Chapter 18**

"I don't want to press charges," Callie voiced confidently.

"My love," Stef answered softly. The cop couldn't just let the idea of the prick who hurt her daughter to get away with it. In her mind, he needed to pay.

"Honey, why are you saying this?" Lena asked. "Is it because you're scared of him? Because I promise, Mom and I are not going to let Tommy come anywhere near you."

"Is that why you don't want to?" Stef asked as she realized that possibility. She just assumed that Callie was being stubborn about it, because Callie was being stubborn about everything lately.

"No," Callie said sternly. "That's not it."

Lena continued calmly, "Then why don't you want–"

"I just want to move passed all of it. I want to forget it. I need to forget Tommy, forget everything I did–"

"Sweetheart," Stef interrupted. "I know you… I know you don't want what happened to you to happen to some other poor girl."

"Don't do that," Callie said softly.

"Do what?" Stef asked.

"Don't go there. Don't force me to do something I don't want to do by making me feel guilty. I'm not responsible for what Tommy does."

"You're not," Lena confirmed.

"You said none of this was my fault," Callie reminded them.

"It isn't," Lena answered again.

"I'm sorry, Callie," Stef muttered. "It came out wrong."

Callie closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and staring at her moms. "I'm just… I'm so tired of going to the court and just… hoping for the best. Hoping that someone sees my side. Hoping that someone else believes me–"

"We believe you," Stef voiced sternly.

"And that's enough," Callie pointed out. "Even if I go to court and tell a room full of people all of the horrible things he did to me, all of the things he threatened me with… he'll still walk. Just like Liam."

Lena and Stef wanted to contradict her but they both remained frozen in place at the mention of his name. They didn't want to admit that she was right.

"Being wiped all over the courtroom as Liam and his lawyers spewed out nothing but lies about me to everyone was humiliating enough. I don't want to go through that again."

"That's not going to happen this time," Stef tried to convince her daughter. "We have evidence. Lots of evidence."

"Like what?" Callie retorted.

"The weekly domestic disturbance calls from your multiple neighbors for starters… not to mention the bruises all over your body and the threatening messages he's been sending to your phone."

"It doesn't matter. It's always the same thing."

"It is not the same thing," Stef voiced strongly. "He will go to jail."

"Yeah, maybe," the teen responded skeptically.

"Callie, trust me. That's one thing I know form my experience as being a cop. The regret some of these women feel because they didn't do something never goes away. I don't want you to feel that way."

"And you won't be alone," Lena told her daughter. "We know it won't be easy but Mom and I are going to be right there with you. If you decide to press charges or if you don't."

Stef glared at her wife.

Callie nodded. "I'll think about it," she answered them both.

CALLIE! they heard Mariana call from her bedroom.

Stef rolled her eyes.

Callie took in a deep breath. "I better go," she used that as her queue as she started to get up from their bed and finally exit their room.

"Wait," Stef said as she grabbed Callie's arm. The teen just assumed Stef was going to continue to lecture her even more but instead, the blonde surprised her by bringing her palm towards the back of Callie's head and pulling Callie closer toward her, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "Think smart, please," Stef felt the need to tell her.

Callie nodded as Lena did the same. "We love you," Lena told her.

"I love you too," the girl answered before backing away from them slowly and making her way over toward the door.

 **So that's the end.**

 **I wasn't sure where to end it but this seemed like a good spot. If someone wants to do the court scene, feel free. I wanted this story to focus on Callie coming home and learning everything she didn't learn in "Words Left Unspoken" and I think I've done just that.**

 **Thank you all who've read this and who've also read the prequel. I had fun writing it.**

 **Also, does anyone know of any stories that take place after the finale? I wanted to read one but it looks like I'm going to have to write it myself :P Let me know if that's what you want.**

 **Thanks again!**


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